"I'm ready for my close up Mr. Demille"

Maren had new born pictures taken. These pictures were taken when she was 5 days old. I've never been able to do this before because the other two had oxygen canulas over their faces and obviously weren't ready to be around people. I was a little nervous but I am glad that we did them because they turned out so cute.

Ok I know I am bias, but she is beautiful.

So far Maren is a very good baby. She's taking it easy on us.

I love sweet newborn cuddles. And she loves to be cuddled.

She's already over being swaddled. She likes to be wrapped, but not too tight and have her arms out.

She is a healthy baby!

Snug as a Bug!

teeny tiny.

Our family loves Maren so much!

Kindergarten

Well it finally happened. Garrett started kindergarten on Aug. 22
I can't believe that he has grown up so fast. It seems like just yesterday when I was holding a tiny little baby boy in my arms.
He has grown to be a smart and very energetic little boy.

He picked out a Transformers backpack. Guess you could say he's into those these days.

For the first day we drove to school and Brad was able to go in late to work so that he could be there to drop him off too. After the bell rang the kids lined up and waited for their teacher to come out and get them. Garrett's teacher is Mrs. Titus. She seems very nice.

And there he goes! Wave good-bye to my little-big boy!

After I picked him up we went to lunch at his choice (McDonald's :) and then he picked out an ice cream cake from the ice cream shop to share with Dad later that night and celebrate his first day of school.

We've been walking to school every morning and he has been riding his scooter - for some reason not ready to go for the bike yet. Last Friday was a special day when the kids got to meet the principle at a nearby park and walk with him to school for health and safety. So far so good, I think we're going to like the kindergarten thing!

(My eyes were a little watery as we drove home, but to my own amazement I didn't bawl like a baby.)

MaDe In cHiNa

Grandpa Blaine made it home from China! and he came to see baby Maren.

He also brought her a gift!

A Chinese baby carrier. He said that people really walk around with their babies on their backs in these kinds of baskets. There is even a little seat inside!

This was really cool! now like he said we actually have something that is "made in China but didn't come from Walmart!"

Maren's first bath

It's always a little bit of a shock the first time around.

then it turns into -not so bad-

and then a little bit relaxing

Hoopin'

Our friend and neighbor made some hula hoops for the kids, how nice! Embrie is loving it!

2 Week check up

Maren had her 2 week check up (a little early, because Garrett has school starting when she is 2 weeks.) Things look good. We have a healthy little baby.

She weighs 7 lbs. 7oz.
and is 20.5 inches long
--making her one ounce above birth weight. they said that she came out at 18.5 in. I think they must have gotten it wrong at birth because there is no way that she grew 2 inches in 9 days. And that would explain why she looks so skinny.

Garrett and Embrie were quite alarmed to hear her screaming when they took her blood for the PKU. She is such a quiet little thing, none of us had ever heard her cry like that.

1st Weeks

oops this is a post I worked on last week and forgot that I didn't post it.



I just might be that crazy mom that takes at least one picture of her baby every day. Ha ha! I can't help it! everything about her is cute!
Here are the moments that I have captured:

Don't you love the whole "scrunched up" little body

Garrett learning how to swaddle, don't worry he is using "baby LuLu" for practice.

Daddy gets to feed Maren

I don't know what it is about how peaceful and sweet they look when they are sleeping, but there is something.

Big Brother sure loves Maren.

Big Sister sure loves Maren.

Ah! she's going down!

Brad caught this one. Mommy is sure tired.

She is changing every day!

I have taken a zillion pictures of all my kids, heck who am I kidding I still take a ton of pictures of them.

Maren's first night home

Going on with tradition I like to break in my babies first night home by thoroughly traumatizing them. Ok, well not really, but I usually have to clip their nails first thing because I HATE them scratching their faces all up. So Maren got her nails clipped.

Then she got her first sponge bath from me. Which she didn't like, but they never do.

Ahhh! the relief of the towel.

Finally some peace.

See her poor little face was so scratched up.

We Have a Baby!

WELCOME

MAREN REESE CALLAHAN


Baby's story:
I did not go into labor on my own like I thought I would. So on Monday, August 8th 2011 I went into the hospital to be induced. Got there at 8am and got things started. At first things seemed like they would be going slow. I'd had my water broken and been put on the petosin and a few hours later not much had changed. Then in a very short amount of time I'm thinking the space of an hour our baby was suddenly ready!
It's pretty amazing how quickly she came, I am still surprised. Having had to push for a long time with my other two children I was ready to be there for the long haul.
This little baby came out in 6 pushes! Wow!

Weighing in at 7lbs. 6 oz. and 18.5 In.

There is a resemblance to both brother and sister as far as the "newborn look" but we think she looks more like Garrett did. She has more hair than he did, but she is thinner in the face than Embrie was. (She is supposed to be a couple oz bigger than Embrie was and she is a little shorter so we don't know where she is hiding it because she seems so thin to us.)

We were naturally worried about how her health would be because of our experience with our other two. At first she seemed to be a little gurgly and wasn't crying, which is similar to how Embrie was but Embrie had come out blue, and this little one seemed to have a good color and the nurses seemed to think she would come out of it with a little time. So I was able to hold her and feed her within the hour. She was so sweet and beautiful!
She was making a grunting sound with each breath that was a little concerning, but they said they would give her a few hours to try and work it out.
Later on they hooked her up to the pulse/ox to check her breathing and she did really well. So far so good . . .

Brad got to hold her too and family came in to see her. Garrett and Embrie met their baby sister for the first time! - On a side note it was funny that when the kids first got to the hospital and came into the delivery room Garrett immediately was looking around and said "Where is the baby?" I had to laugh. I told him the baby was still inside but getting ready to come out. I guess from what we told him he thought she'd pop right out when we got there.-

Garrett and Embrie had a gift for the baby. A little stuffed seal. They were very excited to present it to her. Although for the next few days it was shoved in her face every moment they were there and I think Embrie loves the thing more than anyone else at this point.

It took us about 5 hours to pin down a name for this little baby. We finally decided on one.
Maren Reese
We like to have middle names with a meaning so she was named after my grandpa:
Clyde Reese Niederhauser

We knew before she was born who she'd be named after. We love grandpa Clyde so much and he has been such an importance influence in my life and Brad's as well.

Grandpa Mark and Grandma Peggy

G.G. with all the kids. Embrie jumped right in and wanted to hold her.

Grandma Sheri.

Now a family of 5

Throughout the next few days she was continued her grunting sounds. She seemed to be fine, but Brad and I continued to hold our breath sort of. Not to say that we weren't enjoying her, but we knew that it had been days before we discovered problems with Garrett and so we were prepared to look for signs.
They checked her a couple more times with the monitors while we were there and she did good every time. The nurses and pediatricians were very nice and helpful in answering our questions and understanding our concerns. It seemed that everything was going to be just fine.

2 days later we brought Maren home from the hospital.

(Without any oxygen tanks or monitors!)

Today she is a week old and so precious! Yesterday marks the day when we would have taken Garrett back to the hospital to be checked out and find out there was something wrong.
My heart is so full that Maren has been so peaceful. She still seems to be perfectly healthy. I can't believe what a blessing that has been! I can't help but still hold my breath a little bit and still keep an eye out for signs of trouble, but we don't have the stress looming over us this time. She is doing so good!
Man we love this little baby!

Welcome to the family Maren